What Can We Do About lt? 277 children? Being left out terrorizes children. Why do we allow this to happen by creating places that foster this behavior? Stifling of curiosity: Isn't it obvious that learning is really about curiosity? Adults learn about things they want to learn about. Before the age of 6, prior to school, one kid becomes a dinosaur specialist, while another knows all about dog breeds. Outside of school, people drive their own learning. Schools eliminate this natural behavior. Subjects chosen for you: Why algebra, physics, economics, and U.S. history? Because those subjects were pretty exciting to the president of Harvard in 1892. And, if you are interested in something else—psychology, business, medicine, computers, design? Too bad. Those subjects weren’t taught at Harvard in 1892. Is that nuts or what? Classrooms: If you wanted to learn something and had the money, wouldn’t you hire someone to be your mentor, and have them be there for you while you tried out learning the new thing? Isn’t that what small children have, a parent ready to teach as needed. Classrooms make no sense as a venue for learning unless, of course, you want to save money and have 30 (or, worse, hundreds of) students handled by one teacher. Once you have ratios like that, you have to teach by talking and then hoping someone was listening, so then you have to have tests. Schools cannot work as places of learning if they employ classrooms. And, of course, they pretty much all do. Grades: Any professor can tell you that students are pretty much concerned with whether what you are telling them will be on the test and what they might do for extra credit. In other words, they want a good grade. If you tell them that 2 + 2 = 5 and it will be on the test, they will tell you that 2 + 2 = 5 if it means getting a good grade. Parents do not give grades to children and employers do not give grades to employees. They judge their work and progress for sure, but not by assigning numbers to